Profile: Jonesco plots the future for online ads

Andy Jonesco, former AOL UK managing director and managing director of the Sky online business unit since August 2007, is the man behind the plan.

Jonesco is six months into his job and, having spent time at the top of the newspaper industry at Express Newspapers and The Daily Telegraph, he speaks of online as a medium with almost limitless possibilities.

"I'm an ad sales guy - that's my background," he says. "And the nirvana I talk about is being able to deliver the right ad to the right person at any given time.

"I'll always remember that clip in the film Minority Report when the character John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise is wandering through and they start to put a personalised proposition in front of him. And that's what this medium will realise and that's why it will change the face of media."

Science fiction aside, many online companies already aim to do this. Firms such as Revenue Science and Tacoda monitor browsing habits through technology embedded in websites and, when users return to their network of sites, show an ad related to the content that has previously been viewed.

Data collection
The difference, as Jonesco points out, is that these companies do not have subscriber information on more than 8.5 million individuals in the UK, not to mention data collected online and through Sky's extensive marketing campaigns.

"We have a lot of information and that information is good if we use it responsibly and well," he says.

"The trick, where some people have got it right and some have got it wrong, is doing it in such a way that the consumer feels happy that the kind of experience they are going to get is a good one and a wholesome one."

If Sky can increase its ability to hit people with the right ad at the right time - it currently uses Revenue Science and is testing with other companies - it can then charge more money for the same ad spot.

A glimpse of the balance sheet at BSkyB indicates why this is a growing focus. Of revenues totalling £4.55bn (for the 12 months to 30 June 2007), advertising contributed £352m, with online making up a small part of this.

But, for a TV company, Sky has major plans for the internet. Shortly before Jonesco joined, Sky.com was nothing more than a site where visitors punched in information on how to get a satellite dish on their roof.

It now has seven channels and is growing, while Sky Showbiz is shortly set to get a flashy launch -part of "a whole heap of things not necessarily around the portal that are going to be strong verticals in their own right", according to Jonesco.

"We want to build up our audience credentials in this area as others have," he continues. "Some of the guys who probably aren't quite as strong from a media perspective as we are - big players such as MSN, Yahoo and AOL - all came out of technology companies. They don't come with a heritage of producing interesting and compelling consumer propositions."

Strong armoury
Along with running Sky.com, Skynews.com and Skysports.com, BSkyB owns Mykindaplace.com, 365Media Group (including Football365.com, Sportinglife.com and Planet-F1.com), and sells ads on almost 200 websites, including the sites of top Premier League football clubs.

Sky has clearly built up a strong armoury in its bid to become more popular than AOL, MSN and Yahoo - something that Jonesco sees as a long-term goal. To achieve this Sky has, for now, eschewed the trend of merging TV and digital sales teams.

Jonesco says: "It's interesting that MSN, AOL and Yahoo - the guys who we consider are in our competitive landscape, and who are taking the level of engagement and number of uniques - have a pure digital function. You have to realise the competitive landscape that we are operating in."

One million broadband subscribers, rights to compelling programming, movies and sport, and a deal with Google to provide search, e-mail and other services certainly help Sky's cause. All these factors form part of Jonesco's grand plan to make online central to Sky's offering.

"I supose at one time satellite TV was pretty small for Sky," he says. "Yet it's built up a business of huge magnitude that is in more than 8.5 million homes. So you have to start somewhere, and one of the very many attractive things about taking this role is that Sky is up for it." The only remaining question is: "Are you"?

Andy Jonesco - CV
2007: Managing director, online business unit, Sky
2006: Managing director, AOL UK
2005: Senior vice-president audience, AOL UK
2002: Vice-president interactive marketing, AOL UK
1999: Managing director, Express Group
1996: Ad director, Express Group
1986: Group head/ad manager/display ad director, Telegraph Group
1985: Group head, Today
1984: Group head, Daily Mail
1981: Sales executive, Radio Times.